Get a sneak peek at whats next for Permanent Hazards on our April 7th Office Hours!
This is the place to discuss issues that are relevant for locations in the US. For any other discussions, please use the main forums.
Post by sketch
It looks like "Unbranded" is a bad idea altogether.

When reporting gas prices, only the brand is listed, not the name:



This is fine for stations like Shell and Exxon, but when you're trying to report the price at Danny & Clyde's, it's confusing.

If it displayed the names, as the map does, the list would say "Danny & Clyde's" and "Clearview Shell".

If no brand is selected, the station name will display instead. I saw a "DISCOUNT ZONE" earlier today.

Optimally, selecting "Unbranded" in the editor should have the same effect as leaving the brand blank, so that the name can show. In the meantime, the wiki and any editing guidelines should clearly state that "Unbranded" is not to be used.
sketch
Waze Global Champs
Waze Global Champs
Posts: 6767
Has thanked: 1118 times
Been thanked: 1664 times
Send a message
ALL US EDITORS READ: New USA road type guidance
the guidance linked above is now almost a decade old, but the link gives me a laugh every time i see it, so it stays (:
assistant regional coordinator • south central region • usa
waze global champ • beta leader • and more • new orleans

bye bye fuelly badge! i'm an EV guy now!

Post by sketch
mapcat wrote:The gas price search can find and lead users to the stations no matter how large the landmark is, so why make them bigger?
It can provide clarity to users who wish to report station prices when the name of the station isn't readily apparent from their vantage point. Also, the landmark suppresses map errors and traffic reporting (right?).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
sketch
Waze Global Champs
Waze Global Champs
Posts: 6767
Has thanked: 1118 times
Been thanked: 1664 times
Send a message
ALL US EDITORS READ: New USA road type guidance
the guidance linked above is now almost a decade old, but the link gives me a laugh every time i see it, so it stays (:
assistant regional coordinator • south central region • usa
waze global champ • beta leader • and more • new orleans

bye bye fuelly badge! i'm an EV guy now!

Post by sketch
CBenson wrote:
CBenson wrote:Personally I don't think stations like Costco or PXs that aren't open to the general public should be in the database at all unless there is a method to exclude them from low price searches conducted by the general public.
This was my opinion mentioned in passing regarding the initial brand discussion. Is there any further guidance on this subject? Should I be adding gas stations to the map that are not open to the general public?
I think so. I'm sure there's a significant set of Waze users who are members at Sams or Costco. They should be able to use the price search just like anybody. Maybe we could name them like "Sam's Club (Members Only)" so that people who are unfamiliar with these clubs aren't misled into trying to fill there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
sketch
Waze Global Champs
Waze Global Champs
Posts: 6767
Has thanked: 1118 times
Been thanked: 1664 times
Send a message
ALL US EDITORS READ: New USA road type guidance
the guidance linked above is now almost a decade old, but the link gives me a laugh every time i see it, so it stays (:
assistant regional coordinator • south central region • usa
waze global champ • beta leader • and more • new orleans

bye bye fuelly badge! i'm an EV guy now!

Post by sketch
jasonh300 wrote:All we'd have to do is get the brand in the master brands list changed to say that, rather than have to manually rename every station.
That is an even better idea.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
sketch
Waze Global Champs
Waze Global Champs
Posts: 6767
Has thanked: 1118 times
Been thanked: 1664 times
Send a message
ALL US EDITORS READ: New USA road type guidance
the guidance linked above is now almost a decade old, but the link gives me a laugh every time i see it, so it stays (:
assistant regional coordinator • south central region • usa
waze global champ • beta leader • and more • new orleans

bye bye fuelly badge! i'm an EV guy now!

Post by sketch
mapcat wrote:
jasonh300 wrote:A gas station is much more relevant to a navigation app than a Walgreen's, McDonald's or Hampton Inn. It's a driving app...gas stations are a necessary part of driving. With the integration of gas prices, it makes it even more so.
You could make the same argument for Napa stores and Jiffy Lubes. I'm not buying it.
You could, but people use gas stations every few days, not every few months. And Waze doesn't have a function that finds you the cheapest oil change nearby.

Maybe it's not necessary to have a big grey shape on the map everywhere there's a gas station, but there should be some indication. A little pictograph of a gas pump would do nicely. And even if the gas station landmarks don't suppress traffic reports and map problems, they should, shouldn't they?
sketch
Waze Global Champs
Waze Global Champs
Posts: 6767
Has thanked: 1118 times
Been thanked: 1664 times
Send a message
ALL US EDITORS READ: New USA road type guidance
the guidance linked above is now almost a decade old, but the link gives me a laugh every time i see it, so it stays (:
assistant regional coordinator • south central region • usa
waze global champ • beta leader • and more • new orleans

bye bye fuelly badge! i'm an EV guy now!

Post by sketch
mapcat wrote:Why have we decided that the way to deal with this is to document and mark every possible spot where a driver could be, so that Waze knows they aren't stuck in traffic? Why can't it be assumed that, if a Wazer is moving very slowly (or not at all), and is not within X m of a road, he's not in a traffic jam?
Because our phones aren't accurate enough to know whether we're on a road or at a gas pump ten feet from the shoulder.

Even if they were, we represent an 8-lane expressway with the same single line as we represent a one-lane street. How is Waze to know that I'm not stuck in a jam in the right lane?
sketch
Waze Global Champs
Waze Global Champs
Posts: 6767
Has thanked: 1118 times
Been thanked: 1664 times
Send a message
ALL US EDITORS READ: New USA road type guidance
the guidance linked above is now almost a decade old, but the link gives me a laugh every time i see it, so it stays (:
assistant regional coordinator • south central region • usa
waze global champ • beta leader • and more • new orleans

bye bye fuelly badge! i'm an EV guy now!

Post by sketch
mapcat wrote:Is lane guidance still in the works? If so, it seems reasonable that editors will need to code the number of lanes of the wider roads, which should reduce misunderstanding.
If it is, this is the first I've heard of it. I'm a big fan of lane guidance, and I'd love to see it on Waze, but it doesn't seem like a priority at all.

I've also been trying to figure how it could be done easily in the editor. It can't just be "number of lanes per segment, not if we really want it to be smart, right? If a lane ends or begins, at the very least we need to be able to tell it whether it was on the right or the left. Like if you needed to get on I-10 from Causeway southbound:



It's truncated slightly, but this all happens in less than a quarter mile.

If Waze assumes wrong, it'll tell you to be in the second lane from the left at the beginning of the image. This leaves you in a bad situation -- lots of traffic, difficult merge. For the rest of it, Waze can figure out that going from 3 lanes to two 2-lane segments will mean the middle lane can go either way.

This is a discussion for another thread, if it's even relevant to Waze's plans at all, so I'll leave it here.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
sketch
Waze Global Champs
Waze Global Champs
Posts: 6767
Has thanked: 1118 times
Been thanked: 1664 times
Send a message
ALL US EDITORS READ: New USA road type guidance
the guidance linked above is now almost a decade old, but the link gives me a laugh every time i see it, so it stays (:
assistant regional coordinator • south central region • usa
waze global champ • beta leader • and more • new orleans

bye bye fuelly badge! i'm an EV guy now!

Post by sketch
ohiostmusicman wrote:I like the point landmark idea. Isn't there something similar already used in ROTW where they've been self-managing gas stations before us? Couldn't that be adapted for the US?
We're pretty much self-managing gas stations now, except ours are also connected to a 3rd party service. Displaying the stations as point landmarks would be up to the client development team to implement.

I know our phone GPSes are more accurate than many give them credit for, most of the time. But they do drift or lose signal on occasion. The snapping function is there to account for this. If Waze assumes we're in a parking lot every time our phone says we're 10 meters from the road line, we're gonna have some serious problems on those occasions.

Okay, gas stations don't suppress traffic reports, but they should. And with the Waze staff's expressed desire to map every parking lot, no matter how small, even if we're waiting for them to make parking lot road lines smaller in the client, clearly the trend is to provide more information so that the client can decide when you're parking and when you're driving.

Besides, it's a hell of a lot easier to add and maintain roads for parking lots than it would be to maintain information on the precise width and position of every road on the map.
sketch
Waze Global Champs
Waze Global Champs
Posts: 6767
Has thanked: 1118 times
Been thanked: 1664 times
Send a message
ALL US EDITORS READ: New USA road type guidance
the guidance linked above is now almost a decade old, but the link gives me a laugh every time i see it, so it stays (:
assistant regional coordinator • south central region • usa
waze global champ • beta leader • and more • new orleans

bye bye fuelly badge! i'm an EV guy now!

Post by sketch
robc007 wrote:Here in Michigan, it is very common to find abandoned gas stations from the import. Is it best to delete them or to map out the fence line of where the gas station previously existed?
I would say delete them. It doesn't seem very likely that many of them are going to reopen, and since gas stations we add manually are now showing up in the client, we can re-add them in the case that they do. This way, we avoid closed stations in the client gas screens and any convoluted scheme to make it clear that those stations are closed, at the cost of the 3d party link.
sketch
Waze Global Champs
Waze Global Champs
Posts: 6767
Has thanked: 1118 times
Been thanked: 1664 times
Send a message
ALL US EDITORS READ: New USA road type guidance
the guidance linked above is now almost a decade old, but the link gives me a laugh every time i see it, so it stays (:
assistant regional coordinator • south central region • usa
waze global champ • beta leader • and more • new orleans

bye bye fuelly badge! i'm an EV guy now!

Post by sketch
AlanOfTheBerg wrote:
doomedtx wrote:I had a landmark there back when they didn't count. When Waze said we could edit NA gas stations, I deleted my landmark and moved the incorrect admin landmark from its position ~.5 miles east. Months later the client still offers to send me to the incorrect location when I search for gas. When I'm actually at the station, I'm too far away to update prices.
Search results for gas stations which were previously imported is different than new ones being added. i do believe that search result location is still incorrect for those imported stations. And I don't think we should be deleting them to try and fix the incorrect search location.
Perhaps this is related to the broken landmark search we discovered last month?
sketch
Waze Global Champs
Waze Global Champs
Posts: 6767
Has thanked: 1118 times
Been thanked: 1664 times
Send a message
ALL US EDITORS READ: New USA road type guidance
the guidance linked above is now almost a decade old, but the link gives me a laugh every time i see it, so it stays (:
assistant regional coordinator • south central region • usa
waze global champ • beta leader • and more • new orleans

bye bye fuelly badge! i'm an EV guy now!